Bill Nighy and Domhnall Gleeson on the ‘low-fi’ time travel of ‘About Time’

One of the things that will strike you watching “About Time” is just how great a father-son tale it is, and not at all the sort of father-son tale we regularly see in movies. These are not two men fighting to take each other’s place in the world, each trying to usurp the other. These are two men with genuine affection and a genuine bond, each helping propel the other to greater things.
Naturally then, when we got to sit down with the actors playing the father-son team, Bill Nighy and Domhnall Gleeson, respectively, we had to ask about that relationship. They both agreed with it being something of a rare thing to see on screen. “I was quite pleased to play somebody who was… a decent, nice person in a successful family,” Nighy said, and then continued “You get lots of movies about unsuccessful families because, obviously, that makes for drama-and, you know, they’re great movies-but this was refreshing from that point of view.” 
Gleeson added to that sentiment that “It was lovely that there was just a father in a film and part of his job, which he takes seriously, is to open the world up for his son.”
If you have seen a trailer for “About Time,” you know that the film in some way deals with time travel, but as Drew McWeeny notes in his review, it’s not really about time travel. We asked Gleeson and Nighy about those moments and they both acknowledged that it happens in a great “low-fi” way. Nighy said “I was relieved that you didn’t have to speak funny or get into difficult clothing or get inside a machine or anything like that. It was cool that you just went into a cupboard and closed your eyes and clenched your fists.” 
“About Time” also stars Rachel McAdams. It is written and directed by Richard Curtis and arrives in theaters today, November 1st.